What are we looking for? Will we find it? What if we don't?
I feel it might serve as a microcosm for how some people outside the targeted age see the show. “It”, referring both to the song and the show, serve as a break in the stillness of our lives, a feeling of warmth in the deadness of space, company for a moment where otherwise some have none. While these analogies are cliché, they each encompass a piece of some of the most heartfelt desires of people of all ages, the desire to love and be loved. While the show skirts this idea extremely closely through concepts such as friendship and harmony, both of these concepts are simply pieces of the desire for love. Friendship is amassing people, who one cares for and are cared by, around one's self. Harmony serves as a state of environment where you can pursue such needs. A perpetual state of discord in contrast, prevents the allowance of love, as the world is too unstable for anything more than survival, and caring is a risk, or even a detriment towards survival. An emotional vampire on the other hand, one who wants love but has none to give, leaves the self drained and stretched, as loving takes effort, when the effort is not returned the self is exhausted, or for the worst case, entirely burned out, unable to care, feeling, but denying those feelings, because the cost for acknowledging those feelings is too high. What does one do when the world is too chaotic to love in, or one is too tired to pursue the object of one’s affection? Vices are common, there is no need to pursue love when one cannot conceive of such a thing, when one is too addled to think, one is too addled to fear. Unfortunately such vices do not fix the problem, they simply hide it for either a moment, or for a century, but the sadness, the guilt, the fear, while easily frightened away, always returns, and in greater numbers (as this train of thought is getting too dark, and will get darker, so a star wars reference should lighten the mood somewhat).
Another option is to create artificial love, while actual love cannot be created in such a manner, this so called artificial love does not seek to supplant real love, it simply serves as a lifeline, a feeding tube if you will, to keep an individual from having to indulge in their other vices, keeping them attached to some kind of community, some kind of environment where, even if it is barren of love, it can sufficiently sustain an individual, a few drops of water for someone deep in the desert, while unable to sustain them in the long run, it allows them to continue for a day. This show is such a thing, it supplies a few drops of happiness, of care, of joy, so that people can satisfy their emotional thirst and carry on with their existence, still hungry but no longer starving. It also lampshades the situation with villains such as Discord and Chrysalis, embodied obstacles to love and care, while Nightmare Moon and Sombra show the worst alternative, where sadness and fear are warped into jealousy and rage; creatures who no longer try to care, no longer try to love, and so try to bring their pain to others, because they have nothing else to give and have given up, wishing nothing more than ruin, for themselves and others.
The song itself I feel goes further than the show, like many other things in the fandom, as it deals with emotions only loosely dealt with in the show, and in a more raw context. Emotions such as guilt, fear, uncertainty, desire, duty, and love, are all there, all arranged neatly on a table to look at and examine. However as they are laid bare, they are not hidden behind a veil of safety, where a happy ending is certain, with friends to protect you, and a mentor to grant you certainty. This song is very human, brutal, and potentially very dark, but while it shows the infinite depths of the darkness it also shows a light, however dim and however brief, that while the future is uncertain, it might be possible that one could find or reclaim the love that one is looking for. It can ignite emotions and desires as few other things do, fueled by the emotions as seen through a crystal clear lens. Hopefully this flame will be enough for people to step forward and try to care, try to love, one more time as they have done many times before.
"For years now before us, fearful and unknown, I never imagined, I would face them on my own."